what I've always longed for...

 ...some peace and quiet.  Oh yes, for years and years, I couldn't hear myself think.  I can barely remember even driving in an empty car, always took someone to get some quality time in, or I was bringing them somewhere for an appt. or something, but rarely was I alone.  We usually want what we don't have, and my mother did warn me about this:  Lady Jane, someday you'll miss the chaos, and hate the quiet.  You'll be lonely.  Ha.  Ha ha ha.  Quiet sounded like diamonds or millions of dollars, something I certainly would never have. 

She doesn't understand where Paul is.  She just keeps waiting for him to come home.

...a few autumn decorations!
  

So now I've been gifted the elusive quiet.  And shh, it's kind of lovely, but...lonely, and I don't love it as much as I thought I would.  I am home totally alone, except for the doggies and the kitties, who of course keep wanting to go in and out.  Paul is on his way to Budapest, Hungary, and the kids are all at the youth conference.  Abigail is staying here this weekend, we did have a nice visit earlier today.  She hit a deer a last month, had to rent a car while hers got fixed, it was finally done yesterday.  So today after dropping Paul off at the airport, I met her at the rental place, then we drove back here together...we sat on the deck and had coffee, and solved the world's problems.  She just had a surgery done on her toe, so she's a-hobbling a bit.

I did sneak into Target for a half hour before I met her at the rental, what would YOU do if you had some spare time, and there was a Target, ha?   I found my favorite bra on the clearance rack, in my size, and a really nice fall skirt, and an outfit for little Elise to wear to kindergarten.  

So home all alone, I decided to paint the cabinets.  They used to be oak, which was all the rage when we built this place in 1990.  We painted them Sherwin Williams Alabaster, flat, a few years back, and I love them.  They have gotten a little scraped up, and one cupboard door is in the process of being put back on...oh it is a DOOZY of a story, it broke off so long ago, there's a pic of Evelyn when she was small, in front of the broken cabinet door, and she's 23 now.  yeah.  So I had some plans, was going to put some farm-house-y curtain there, but Paul insisted he would fix it.  He got the door all fixed, but has yet to actually put in on the cabinet...I wanted to repaint the door before he installs it, so I got out the paint...and ended up painting all the lower cabinets and drawers, just slopped on another coat of paint, they look brand new and clean and nice.  When you use really good paint, it's so forgiving and easy to paint with.  I need to get another gallon to do the uppers, and the doors in the hallway.

This should make you all feel better about your kitchens.  I wasn't going to post it:  Suri's rear end, the crock pot still out, dishes in the dish rack, the bowl I have to give back to Margaret, some pans on the stove, that towel rack/cabinet basket sitting on the floor in front of the stove...the cabinet doors open so the paint could dry...

Anyway, I was limping when I was done with helping with food yesterday.  My hip started acting up, ouch.  I was supposed to go out and help with dinner today, but nope, couldn't do it.  The painting I did mostly sitting, moving the chair from one cupboard to the next one.  

Now I'm done painting, since I ran out of paint, I've had dinner, leftover beef roast and gravy from Thursday, and here I am...home all alone.  It's too quiet.  I'm not a television person, so I've puttered around cleaning up this and that, read some of my book, ate too many Hershey Kisses, and now...well, the crickets are cricketing and the cars are going by every little while, but it's very quiet.  

It's almost midnight, Abigail is here, and I'm heading to bed....goodnight!

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